The U.S. “M1” rifle, also known as the M1 Garand rifle, was the main battle rifle of the U.S. military from 1936 to 1957. While considered to be technologically advanced in its time. The gas operating system employed on the M1 utilizes an operating rod that is nearly as long as the barrel and a gas cylinder that is mounted very close to the barrel. In order for the rifle to function properly the operating rod must be bent in a manner to clear the stock.
A clip is a device that is used to store multiple rounds of ammunition together as a unit, ready for insertion into a receptacle of a firearm. This speeds up the process of loading and reloading the firearm because several rounds can be loaded at once, rather than one round being loaded at a time. The M1 rifle is designed to feed ammunition from eight-round en bloc clips. With this design, both the round and the clip are inserted as a unit into a fixed magazine within a magazine well, and the clip is usually ejected or falls from the rifle upon firing or chambering of the last round. The M1 is configured such that rounds are fed from the top of the rifle, through an open receiver top, requiring that any added optics or other accessories be mounted on the side of the receiver.
The M1 rifle also uses an indirect bolt stop mechanism that acts on the operating rod, not the bolt itself. The design of the stock on the M1 rifle employs two hand guards to cover the barrel and the operating rod, and which extends nearly to the muzzle of the rifle.
The M1 rifle, its descendants, the M14 and Losok Valkyr, are all very rugged rifle designs, with several very desirable qualities, like accuracy, dependability, simplicity and ease of use. All of the earlier designs were based on using the well-proven trigger mechanism of the M1 in some form. This, by its nature, limited stock designs and weapon size. The earlier designs all required complex and time consuming machining operations related to this mechanism and its placement in the receiver. The firing pin safety bridge in these designs was an integral part of the receiver, and required extensive and complicated milling or casting techniques to be used to make the part. The earlier designs also used a hand guard system that either attached to the barrel or stock. The earlier designs used either side mounted scopes or machined in rails to mount optics. The nature of the design of the M1 required that the barrel be held down by a barrel band or a larger magazine well, as in the Losok Valkyr rifle could be used to hold the front of the rifle in place. On M1 and descendant designs the forward portion of the operating rod was partially covered by the stock and hand guards but at least partially exposing the rod.